PRIVACY

Privacy Policy

Last updated 3 October 2026

Groundlore (“we”, “us”) is a coffee-cup-reading service for delight and entertainment. This policy explains, plainly, what we collect and what we do with it. We do not sell your data, we do not show advertising, and we keep collection to the minimum the service needs.

What we collect

How you sign in. You can sign in with a one-time link we email you, or with Google. With an email link, we use your address to send the link; your account itself stores only a one-way code made from the address, not the address. With Google, Google tells us your name, email address and profile picture, and we keep only Google’s account number for you. Either way it is used only to keep your readings with you across devices.
Your cup photos. When you request a reading, the photo you take or upload is sent to our server and on to our AI provider to generate the reading. We do not store your photos — the image is processed to produce the reading and then discarded. Only the resulting reading text is kept.
Your readings. The text of each reading (greeting, symbols, message) and the optional name, theme, and question you provide are stored so you can revisit your history.
Basic technical data. Standard server logs (e.g. IP address and request time) used to keep the service secure and prevent abuse.
If you write to us or ask for a refund. Your email address and your message, so we can answer. For a refund we also look up the purchase on Gumroad and keep its sale number and date; a licence key you type is never stored, only a one-way code made from it.
If you report a reading. The report, and the reading’s text, which is sent to us so a person can review it.
How the site is used. Which pages are viewed and which buy links are clicked, measured with Google Analytics 4. We run it with storage consent denied by default — so it is not permitted to write analytics cookies or similar identifiers to your device unless that ever changes and we ask you first — and with IP anonymisation on. It tells us how many people read a page. It is not used for advertising and we do not run ads.
If you tap “Keep & share”. That publishes part of the reading at a groundlore.com/r/… link, and anyone who has that link can open it without signing in. The public page shows the symbols the cup held and what they meant, the message and the closing. It deliberately leaves out the greeting (which carries the name you gave), your question and the cup’s answer. Share pages are excluded from search engines. If you want one taken down, email us and we will remove it. The parts left out of the public page can be unlocked, for that one reading only, by whoever redeems the $29 printed edition against that link — a licence is tied to the first reading it opens and cannot open any other.

Why we are allowed to

To give you what you asked for — your account, your reading, your history, and anything you bought. In GDPR terms this is performance of our contract with you.
To keep the service standing up — server logs, rate limits and anti-abuse measures. This is our legitimate interest in not being knocked over or defrauded.
To count page views — analytics, run in the restricted, no-device-storage mode described above. If we ever want to switch on cookie-based analytics or advertising measurement, we will ask your consent first, and until you give it that switch stays off.

How long we keep it

Your cup photo: not kept at all. It is used to write the reading and discarded.
Your readings and account: kept until you delete them, so your history is still there when you come back. There is no automatic expiry. You can delete one reading, or your whole account, yourself at any time (see how deletion works). A reading you took before signing in has no account and no email on it: delete it from the same browser, or send us its share link (groundlore.com/r/…) and we will delete it.
Sign-in link records: 2 days. Messages to us: 12 months. Refund requests: 24 months. Reports: 12 months. Each is deleted automatically.
Server logs: 14 days, then they are rotated away.
Analytics: aggregate page-view counts held by Google under its own retention settings. It does not contain your photo, your reading or your name.

Where your data lives

Your account and readings are stored on our own server, hosted in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany). Your sign-in session is held in a secure, encrypted cookie on your own device.

The Groundlore Android app

The Groundlore app on Google Play shows this same website inside Chrome, so everything on this page applies to it in the same way. The app adds nothing of its own to what the website collects: it does not read your contacts, location or files, it does not send notifications, and it contains no advertising or tracking code. Taking a cup photo uses your camera through Chrome, which asks your permission first. If you subscribe in the app, Google Play handles the payment (see Who we share with).

Sending your photo abroad

The reading itself is written by Anthropic, which is in the United States, so at the moment of the reading your cup photo and the inputs you typed leave the EU. That transfer is covered by Anthropic’s data processing agreement, which incorporates the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses — the standard legal mechanism for this. You can read Anthropic’s terms at anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms. Nothing else about you is sent outside the EU except the anonymised analytics events described above.

Who we share with

We use a small number of trusted providers to run the service, and only for that purpose:

Anthropic (the AI that writes your reading) — receives your cup photo and reading inputs at the moment of the reading. Anthropic does not use this data to train its models on by default for API traffic.
Google — provides sign-in if you choose it. We never receive your Google password.
Our own mail server sends sign-in links and our replies. No mailing company is involved, and we never send newsletters or marketing.
Google Analytics — receives anonymised page-view and buy-link-click events. It does not receive your photo, your reading, your question or your name. Page addresses are sent with identifiers stripped: the query string is never included, and the id in a /r/… or /keepsake/… address is replaced with a placeholder before the event is sent, so neither a share link nor a purchase licence key reaches Google.
Google Play — only if you use the Groundlore Android app. Google Play installs and updates it, and if you subscribe in the app it takes the payment. We receive a purchase code and the subscription’s status and end date, so your account gets its daily reading; we never see your card or other payment details. We keep only a one-way code made from the purchase code, never the code itself.
Gumroad — only if you buy the $9 guide or the $29 printed edition. Gumroad is the seller of record and takes the payment, so it holds your purchase details. We never see your card details. See our Terms.

We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone, and we do not share it for advertising.

Your rights

You can ask us to: show you the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, send you a copy of it, or stop a particular use of it. Deleting needs no request at all: do it yourself from your account. For anything else, one message is enough, through the help page or to hello@groundlore.com. You never have to give a reason and it never costs anything.

If you are in the EU or the UK and you think we have handled your data badly, you can also complain to your national data protection authority — you do not have to come to us first, though we would rather you did so we can fix it.

Your choices

You can sign out at any time from within the app.
You can delete your account and all stored readings yourself, at once, from your account.
You can delete any one reading, which also takes down its groundlore.com/r/… share page.
You can report any reading that upset you or broke the reader’s rules, from the link under it.

Children

Groundlore is intended for adults (18+) and is not directed at children.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update the date above and post the new version here.

Who is responsible for your data

The data controller is Sam Arora (Arora Enterprises, a sole proprietorship), trading as Groundlore. Groundlore was previously called ReadMyCup; you may still see that name on older files. There is no separate data protection officer — questions and requests go to Sam Arora directly at hello@groundlore.com, and we aim to acknowledge within 48 hours and resolve within one month.

Contact

Questions or deletion requests: hello@groundlore.com.

made for delight, not prophecy